The skin is an organ that performs a variety of significant biological functions, such as protecting internal tissues from external threats, regulation of a body temperature, preventing viral invasions, perception, and secretion. Destruction of the skin by a trauma, a wound, a burn, or a decubitus can cause loss of these protective functions, making a patient experience discomfort until a wound is healed, and in some cases that the skin is extensively damaged, the patient's life is endangered.
Particularly, in the case of the decubitus or open surgical wound, a large quantity of secretion is oozed from a wounded portion of the skin, thus it is necessary to prevent the secretion from stagnating on the wound to suppress the infection of the skin. If blood or exudate oozed from the wound such as pustule stagnates on the wound, the propagation of bacteria occurs which infects the skin to delay the healing of the wounded skin. Additionally, the exudate may lead to the maceration of tissues around the wound to enlarge a wounded portion of the skin. Nevertheless, the dryness of a surface of the wound caused by the excessive removal of the exudate is not preferable because moisture is needed in order to efficiently heal the wounded skin.
Additionally, a dressing capable of maintaining the wound under a humid environment, being freely deformed according to a shape of the wound, and having excellent exudate absorptivity is useful to support the healing of the wound such as a cavity, a pocket, or a decubitus, from which a large amount of exudate is oozed. The term “excellent exudate absorptivity” denotes an ability that the dressing rapidly absorbs the exudate in large amount. In the case of a gauze dressing for a wound filler used to support the healing of a deep wound, an absorption rate of the exudate into the gauze dressing is relatively fast, but the absorptivity of the exudate into the gauze dressing is relatively low. Further, the gauze dressing serves to maintain the wound under a dry environment to delay the healing of the wound, and the replacement of the gauze dressing is not easily conducted and causes the damage of a regenerated tissue and the discomfort of a patient because the gauze dressing is attached to the wound under the dry environment. Additionally, the gauze dressing is disadvantageous in that the gauze dressing must be replaced often at an initial healing step of the wound because a large amount of the exudate is oozed from the wound. Some improved dressings have been developed to avoid disadvantages of the gauze dressing, but have disadvantages in that their absorptivity and moisture vapor transmission rate are poor, they are not freely filled in the wound, and when they are separated from the wound to replace them, portions of the dressings remain on the wound because they are firmly attached to the surface of the wound.
Examples of the above improved dressings include an alginate dressing, a hydrocolloid dressing, a hydrogel dressing, and a polyurethane foam dressing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,113 discloses a hydrophilic alginate dressing with 10 to 20 times absorptivity its weight, which is useful to support the healing of a deep wound oozing a large amount of exudate because when a portion of the alginate dressing remains on the wound, such a portion can be removed using a saline solution. However, this patent is disadvantageous in that when the used alginate dressing is replaced with a new one, a viscous material may remain on the wound, and the alginate dressing is firmly attached to the wound under a dry environment to damage a regenerated tissue when the alginate dressing is removed from the wound.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,503,847 and 5,830,932 suggest a hydrocolloid dressing including an attachable composition layer, a hydrocolloid layer relieving an external impact and absorbing an exudate, and a film layer intercepting the invasion of bacteria and alien substances into the wound. The hydrocolloid dressing absorbs a small amount of exudate from the wound to form a gel, thereby providing a moist and slightly acidic environment for a relatively long term under which damage to the tissue is prevented, and a growth of cells constituting the tissue is promoted. However, the hydrocolloid dressing has disadvantages in that it cannot be used for a wound filler, has poor exudate absorptivity of less than 100 wt %, a gel is attached to the wound when it is replaced with new one or removed to act as a nutrition source promoting the propagation of bacteria, and cannot be applied to the wound oozing a large amount of exudate.
Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,501,661 and 5,489,262 recite a hydrogel dressing which includes a polymer film layer having no permeability and a hydrogel coated on the polymer film layer. In this regard, the polymer film layer functions to prevent the hydrogel from being dehydrated and dried, and the hydrogel layer comes into contact with a surface of a wound to absorb an exudate from the wound and maintain the wound under a humid environment to support the healing of the wound. However, the hydrogel dressing has disadvantages in that it cannot be applied to the wound oozing a large amount of exudate because of its poor moisture vapor transmission rate, and it is destroyed when its swelling is maintained for a relatively long time to cause the maceration of a undamaged portion of the skin around the wound.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,662 discloses a hydrophilic polyurethane foam dressing which is structured such that a polyurethane foam is surrounded by a net film having fine holes, thereby well absorbing an exudate. However, the hydrophilic polyurethane foam dressing is disadvantageous in that the net film constituting the hydrophilic polyurethane foam dressing is attached to a regenerated skin tissue due to the fine holes of the net film when it is applied to a wound oozing a large amount of exudate, thereby the exudate is not sufficiently absorbed into the polyurethane foam dressing. Another disadvantage is that the polyurethane foam dressing cannot have various shapes, thus it is difficult to apply the polyurethane foam dressing to the wound with a narrow and deep shape.
To sum up, the above conventional dressings are disadvantageous in that they have poor absorptivity and moisture vapor transmission rate, are firmly attached to the surface of the wound, and have poor physical properties. Other disadvantages are that remaining portions of them are attached to the wound after they are used and separated from the wound, and they cannot be used for a wound filler and not be applied to the wound oozing a large amount of exudate.